An underwater robot explores underwater environment while moving in the water. Such an underwater robot is capable of moving and exploring in the water by using a power of an embedded battery. If, however, the embedded battery is completely discharged in the water, the underwater robot cannot be operated anymore and the battery needs to be recharged.
Various techniques have been proposed for maintenance, repair and management of the underwater robot such as battery charging. For example, Patent Document 1 (Korean Patent No. 10-10033967) discloses a charging station including a main body at which an underwater exploration robot can dock; and a charging unit configured to charge the underwater exploration robot. Further, as described in Patent Document 2 (Korean Patent Publication No. 2011-0012324), there has been also proposed an underwater robot configured to transmit a charging request packet when the remaining battery or battery status of the underwater robot is below a threshold value, and a charging station configured to locate the underwater robot at a charging position by a magnetic force by way of operating an electromagnet.
In the aforementioned conventional techniques, however, since the charging of the underwater robot is conducted in the water, complete waterproofing for charging is difficult to achieve, and it may result in occurrence of a short circuit.
Accordingly, various kinds of circuits and a battery embedded in the underwater robot are highly likely to be damaged.
Moreover, since the underwater robot is managed only in the water, it has been difficult to dry and clean the underwater robot.